BankThink

A startup aims to highlight the social impact that banks have to allow easier vetting by prospective customers; community banks like Jill Castilla's are getting income from being tech vendors; and Amex is making its parental leave policies better next year, in a move that just might be an emerging trend. Plus, Wonder Woman loses her U.N. job … because of the way she dresses.

It is not a clear-cut statement to say Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac need more capital, and it detracts from the real debate over long-term housing finance reform.

The National Credit Union Administration rule expanding member business lending introduces new risks and lacks legal basis.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Confirmed: As expected, Goldman Sachs named David Solomon and Harvey Schwartz as presidents and co-COOs to replace Gary Cohn, who is leaving to join the Trump administration. The naming of two co-presidents to replace Cohn "raises questions about the structure and strategic direction of the company," the Financial Times says, and suggests "a return to a traditional structure that pits an executive from the trading side of the business against one from investment banking." While the New York Times suggests it's "a new generation."

In response to a series of cyber bank thefts, Swift has developed new guidance. It's a necessary first step, though banks for now are still left to fend for themselves.

A legislative proposal would expand Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac's use of specially-created debt securities to share their risk with private investors, but such risk transfer deals are not a replacement for core capital.

Banks should embrace artificial intelligence so that they can more easily navigate policy shifts that will affect their compliance resources and processes.

Receiving Wide Coverage ...Nixed: U.S. banking regulators rejected Wells Fargo's revised living will as inadequate and imposed new sanctions on the bank: preventing it from setting up overseas entities and buying nonbank companies. Wells was one of five big banks – the others were JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Bank of New York Mellon and State Street – whose living will plans were rejected last April; Wells was the only one whose revision did not pass muster. The bank has until March 31 to submit a third plan; if that one is also rejected, the bank could be hit with more sanctions, including higher capital requirements. "This the first time that regulators have imposed penalties since the country's biggest banks were required to submit 'living wills' starting in 2012," the Wall Street Journal notes. Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, New York Times, Washington Post, American Banker

President-elect Trump faces legal questions over his idea to hold remittances ransom to fund a wall in Mexico, but the industry should take the threat seriously.

Judicial review of regulators' economic analyses can help validate whether a rule will solve a real problem at a reasonable cost.